The Fulcrum
by Stonehenge
Summary: A Story of Paine. Dreams aren't real right? So there's no way this man in Paine's dreams could be alive, and the love that one feels is just illusion? Please Read.
1. Chapter 1

A Dream of Paine

A flash, and the lightning shot across the dark water, an arcane machine moving beneath. It writhed and fluxed in fury and pain, a dark titan, an insipid beast made for a dual purpose, for hope and salvation. It was the harbinger of destruction, death born from its wings of dark sheath, and a core made from the fulcrum.

And there was a man standing before the monster. She saw him. He stood there before the fury, indomitable, powerful. And she was afraid. She didn't know the meaning of it. Where was she and why could she see him?

"Who are you?" But a silence was caste, golden. He would not hear her, because he was not really there.

Paine awoke from her sleep with fury to rival a fiend. Her bed spread responded like projectile from a gun, before it floated like a ghost in moonlight from the window of the airship to the floor. The moon, it caught her mind. It wasn't there when she had fallen asleep. It meant she had been out only few hours. But adrenalin pulsed through her and heart was a drum beat from the parties she had partaken in the past. When they cast down the indomitable Vegnagun, and sent two lovers to paradise. It was unusual, so why was she feeling so excited when she obviously was so tired?

She fell back. She didn't need or want to lose sleep. She didn't need any more heavy weights to carry. Her thoughts progressed her and she starred at the empty bed next to her. Her friend, Yuna, had until recently occupied it. Her friend who was absent because recently she had found someone she wanted to share a bed with. She laughed silently at the thought. It seemed impossible, but it was going to happen, if it hadn't already.

Her friend was the more likely to have dreams like that though.

What a bizzare dream it was.

She had nearly forgotten but the feeling, the fear, and the glory that seemed to come over her as she saw him, the ghostly man in her dream. Who was he? More importantly to her, what was he standing in front of? He was a definite stranger, someone she had never met in her life. So way should she care.

But the fulcrum? Paine wondered why that word had come to mind. It seemed familiar in the vaguest sense but she couldn't pin it down. It actually bothered her somewhat.

"The Fulcrum," she said aloud hoping that it might help her memory, but nothing came. "What the hell?" Indeed, why was she thinking about this. She was veteran warrior and sphere hunter. She had fought literal monsters, so why give any power to amorphous horrors in her dreams.

Besides she was tired and this wasn't the best sort of thought to put her to sleep or to calm her down. She sat up and threw her legs over the side, standing to stare at the Moon. It had such grace; half full almost, waning slowly turning to darkness. To her it was a mother, as it had been in the past when the great Sin had taken her own. She saw its pass with the Celsius over the dark water, an airship. She thought of her three friends. Their pledge to fly the world in a ship. The power and greatness they had already achieved. The world wasn't dark any more. Not with them and Yuna at the helm of their airship. It was hope.

"Why in Spira, am I letting this get to me?" She whispered through the glass.

She resolved herself, climbing back into her bed, slowly allowing her fatigue to drift her off to sleep.

"I know my friend. I see her too, and so does God. But I'm afraid you'll never make it to her."

(A/N) I don't know when I will write the next one. I'm a busy man, but please tell me what you think by reviewing.

"Fortune smiles upon those who review." –an anonymous guru.

Stonehenge.


	2. Chapter 2

A Find to Fight For

A cold was a sinister thing. It blanketed the earth bringing everything under it's until all was the same freezing temperature like a vicious virus running through the human cell system. And the cold that surrounded the ominous Mt. Gagazet and its sister mountains was no exception. Reaching extreme heights, even the Ronso with their thick coats and unparalleled ability to survive in the cold were unwilling to venture beyond certain altitudes. Snowstorms, hurricane force winds, and hail like bullets made the mountains a deadly lace for even fiends. Few and fewer cold be encountered as one would ascend the mountains. In one are the peaks and winds became so furious that nothing would venture there. Not the Ronso despite their valor, not fiends despite their tenacity nor humans or anything others. For to try and cross the mountains would mean certain death for most. They were unclimbable and too high for the birds. But not for an airship…

The Celsius ascended fast, with its hull moaning under the stress of the crosswinds to the great uneasiness of the crew. Paine couldn't say a little unnerved by the sounds. They resonated like the wailing cry of banshees throughout and kept provoking in her mind the image of the ship spontaneously splitting in two. She didn't show it though she knew better than to show any vulnerability…even to her friends.

Rikku, her partner at the moment wasn't so reserved. With each creak she would sink near to crouch shielding her head from any falling debris, if there would be any of course. Each time nothing would fall and she would make some attempt to laugh it off. "Brother," namely Rikku's brother was much the same way, however despite his claimed, "toughness" he performed even worse. Only Buddy who was already too stressed navigating the ship and Shinra, who never really seemed to pay attention to much showed no reaction. They still noticed it though, Paine knew.

"Oh, c'mon, why eh this thin' wailin' like mi' old' mummy?" Their "new" recruit exclaimed with a shrill tone of panic. Paine rolled her eyes at his comment, as she did at most of his comments. She didn't appreciate him much. To her at least he had an attitude that he was the best man in the world for every possible thing. She knew the type before but this guy was it personified. He only called himself Icarus, if that was his real name and he reminded her of a certain O'aka XXIII. She didn't miss him.

"Why, you scared of a little flying?" she had to take to opportunity.

"No! Never! But, this her' sound's about to ter' to pieces!" Turbulence began at that point, knocking him and her to the ground of the Celsius' Bridge. Paine could feel the force of gravity began to pull her toward the hatchway. The nose was pointed up, which meant that they were going into a stall.

"Hang on to your asses!" Buddy yelled and Paine suddenly felt her own inertia push and the pain of hitting her head against the edge of the stairs. She inwardly cursed everything quickly, before calming down and getting back to her feet once Buddy had regained control. She comforted herself knowing that Rikku had suffered the same fate.

The ship finally started shaking a moment later and Paine rubbed what could become a throbbing bruise as he walked toward the nose of the Celsius. Rikku was still struggling to get up. "What the hell was that?"

"Sorry everyone. The Ronso weren't kidding about the winds. That gust just now forced the Celsius into a stall. Could've slammed us against one of those mountains."

"Tha' all 'cause you're fylin' the ship 'rong. If you ha' me on that controller we'd be safe an' comfortable in that righ' now!" their esteemed companion Icarus said.

"Shut up would you! You were the one crying just now," Paine said resentfully.

"Oh righ' then. Givin' me lip eh? But you're the ones oo' would be out'a expert climbr' righ' now if I had not come alon.' Could deserve a littl' respect," He turned back, pouting for a moment before shrugging it of and gathering his belongs he lost in the turbulence and leaving the bridge.

"Just ignore him Paine. He's only this one mission then we'll kick him off and get the spheres back to Besaid." Buddy tired to consol he anger. Paine tired to act like he was wrong. She still wanted an excuse to run he skulled adorned sword through his soft neck.

"Do we really need him?" she said lowly.

"He's the best climber in the business. They say there isn't one mountain on Spira he hasn't gone up."

"They say." Pain responded pacing around the bridge to lessen her rage.

"Yeah," was all Buddy's response. The indicator before him began to chime. "Look's like we're coming on the location now. This is it." The clouds parted t slowly to reveal the frozen landscape bellow. It reminded Paine some what of the Farplane, the vortex which led to the abyss where Vegnagun was hidden before they finally managed to destroy. The high mountains hid a sort of sanctum for the forgotten, a frosty valley protected on all side from outsiders, nearly flat save for the scattered rocks and small peaks. It was beautiful but it didn't give Paine any confidence. There was snow and rocks, no scattered machina, nothing to indicate civilization. The oscillo-finder begged to differ.

"You sure there's anything here?" Rikku asked.

"Positive," Shinra said for the first time in an hour. "I've calibrated the oscillo-finder as precise as anyone can. There spheres here. And I emphasize the plural."

"So there's something here. But that still means that we have wade around in the snow," Paine remarked. She never liked the cold. It just gave her the sense of being left of her own.

"We should be able to get you at least within a hundred meters of it," Shinra said.

"It's that accurate?" Paine asked.

"The sphere strength is unusually strong. Makes it easy."

"Anyway, so there are spheres down her, Paine. We're coming in on the target area now." The uneasiness of the entire episode finally was beginning to wane. The end was at hand finally. Then she could finally get some time to herself. The black rocks the littered the landscape began to scatter, leaving just a flat blanket of snow. Good place for a landing.

"Let's get this over with" she said to herself. She exited the bridge, searching for some more appropriate garments for the cold.

Thunderous sounds roared, and the snow was cascaded away as the giant airship slowed to a hover, gradually lowering the force that kept it airborne until the four enormous propulsion legs touched gently onto the surface of the ice, shockwaves echoing as the great cry of the ship waned until it was but a murmur.

The airtight clamps, which the entrance hatch to the ship's engine room, released like chains falling limp from a body. A hiss of air and the ship opened its gates to the world, letting loose the three frumpy explorers. Paine stepped and despite the heavy cloaks she and Rikku had donned for the occasion, the cold still pierced like a knife into her skin. She flinched from the momentary shock, cursing the weather, and fortune for putting a sphere in such a remote place. Rikku simply shivered and panted from the temperature. Icarus was the only one of them that dressed in the same fashion he would have for summer getaway, as though he couldn't feel anything at all. He chuckled a bit when both girls flinched again form a stronger gust of wind. "'Eh what's th' mattr.' Scared of a lttl' cold?"

"Shut up." Paine said, in no mood for another spout with him. She pulled a mobile device form under her cloak, a small receive made by their small friend to register the information for the ocsillo-finder. A great idea that could save them a lot of time milling about searching, which could be deadly in the cold of their present situation. The small screen was barely readable due to the dim light, and the chaotic nature of sphere waves. But she could tell the sphere, or spheres where most likely ahead of them. "It should be straight ahead."

Rikku acknowledged, "Let's find it before we freeze to death. They advanced slowly, carefully trying not to slip on the ice around them. The terrain was relatively flat, and for the most part easily navigable. Paine eventually began to think they didn't really need that new "addition", when the land suddenly dropped several meters below them.

"Damn," Paine cursed. It was too far just to jump, and too hazardous. She looked down, rocks protruded from the face of the hill like pikes. Too dangerous. They would be risking broken legs it they tried to slide down it. She sighed heavily. This was going to slow them down, and maybe make that excursion twice as long as it could have been. A static came into her ear. Buddy was hailing her.

"What's the trouble?"

"We've come up on a cliff. It may take few minutes," she said looking to Icarus who was almost giddy for the chance to show his ability.

"Roger, just keep us posted."

Icarus pulled several pikes from his sack that he carried over his shoulder, striking them into the ground and hammering them in with a small axe. He lobbed a heavy coil of line the ground fastening to the poles before throwing it over the side. "Alrigh' Jus' do as I do. An' don' screw up." He said before disappearing over the side. Paine and Rikku followed closely using the line to stabilize themselves as they lowered themselves down the slope to the ice bellow.

The high winds began to pick up their force, and the ambient temperature began to drop, and Paine had trouble keeping the ice off the small screen as she advanced on the signal. "Damn," she thought to herself, "it's getting bad out here." She flicked off a piece of ice that had fallen on the screen. Rikku and Icarus had fallen behind her, keeping and eye in all directions for anything that could mean a sphere, but the scenery was all the same in most directions. Paine could barely make out the silhouette of the Celsius in the distance. The click of the device began to gain strength. It must be close. She starred as the landscape before her, only to see the stray stones and boulders buried in the snow. "Where is it?" She quickened her place faster as the click began to strengthen.

Rikku scampered to catch up with her. "Hey! Wait up!" Paine wasn't listening; she was too determined to find the source. Rikku broke out into a run after, breathing heavily from the high altitude. Before she knew it she was off balance falling face first into the ice. "Owww!" She wailed. Her foot had gotten caught on one of the stray stones. Paine stopped with a sigh. Another distraction! "Hey this isn't a rock," Rikku said kicking the insidious stone several times producing a metallic clank. Paine turned completely around starring at the subject stone. Her eyes lost focus for moment; she didn't know what she was starring at. And suddenly she saw it. A glyph. A symbol on the back side of the stone.

"It's a piece of some machina." Paine said, before turning around, continuing to follow the signal. It continued for several more meters, the pulse becoming loud enough to nearly overcome the howl of the wind. "Where the hell is it?" she muttered. The blinding white haze suddenly gave way before her, revealing a cliff face that shot upward far enough so that she couldn't see the top. "Damn." The click of the indicator became calamitous, driver Paine to shut it off. It wasn't going to be any help now. They were stuck with fleeing about the ice until they came over something.

The white noise of static, she heard again. "You switched off the ocsillo-finder, did you find it?" Buddy asked.

"Not yet," She grunted. This wasn't encouraging. Rikku ran up behind her and sighed in frustration.

"Oh, there's nothing here."

"We'll have to spread out. Check any of the scattered pieces of machina."

They scattered around the area, trying any remnants of the past, for something that was usable. Paine looked around debris, checking any of the pieces for a sphere, or piece of a sphere. Nothing. She doubled back a little bit, checking any of he pieces that they first past. Nothing. She was frustrated. All this way for a sphere they weren't able to find. All the suffering of the cold for nothing. Paine returned to the cliff face that had stopped her. All that way. All that effort. She scanned it over. It was completely covered in ice. No trace of rock or ancient devices. Nothing to grip. Nothing visible. And then a hunch came over her, an odd thought, and an instinct that drove her toward the cliff face. "Maybe." Paine placed her gloved hand on the ice, scathing part of it away to reveal metal underneath. "It's machina," she said softly. "Rikku!"

It took some minutes to scathe of most of the ice. In some areas they had to use the small axe Icarus carried to hack it off, and still in some areas it wouldn't come off at all. It was mostly solid and plain, only a few glyphs scattered throughout the hull, but they ultimately had no meaning, or whatever they did mean was completely lost to them. And they didn't reveal the spheres. Paine became to feel the stress again, the frustration of being unable to find the sphere. Nearly hot with anger she punched the hull sending a clear tone that echoed in the surrounding mountains. Why was some much going wrong? Why was luck suddenly against them? She was nearly read to storm off back to the Celsius before she noticed one of the glyphs came to life.

"Paine look!" She hadn't seen it before, when she had first gone over that part of the hull. Why had it suddenly lit up? She approached it, the alien symbol, the lost piece of Spira's past, a word that lost all meaning in life, yet it aired familiarity. "Why not," she said to herself, and placed her hand on the glyph. It glowed ever brighter and scattered in a flash, leaving nothing but the faded black hull. Paine waited a moment, stepping back to see what mechanism she had fool-heartedly initiated. Nothing.

"Well that's a let down," Rikku commented.

Paine didn't say anything. She was too flustered by all the happenings of that day to have any reaction. She was done. They would have to regroup and rethink before returning. Her legs were nearly frozen, her fingers as well. She about faced and walked past Rikku and Icarus toward the Celsius. She walked almost breaking into a run when the ground she had stepped on suddenly fell beneath her.

What Rikku saw nearly sent her into shock. Paine was there, walking toward the Celsius in a bad mood, then she suddenly disappeared as though the ground had eaten her whole. She ran over toward the edge almost sliding in herself. It was several meters long by several meters wide. Large enough to fit small boat into, or an airship.

Paine had to recover a moment. She hadn't expected this. The shock of suddenly falling several meters and the impact. She was fine mostly, in shock and a bit bruised but she nothing broken, which surprised her considering how she had struck the ground. It was hard to, some sort of steel alloy. She pushed herself up to crouch feeling the ice slide of her. It wasn't a hole she was in. It was an overhead hatchway to a caver. She noticed she was on a machina elevator system. That's what the glyph had activated. It had lowered itself leaving the thin layer of ice over head, which she had fallen through.

"Paine!" Her legs hurt to stand, it wasn't going to be a breeze for her to get out of there. "Paine!" Rikku must have thought she was seriously injured. "Paine!"

"I'm fine Rikku. I'm fine." Paine stood there now fully erect, gazing into the dark abyss she had fallen into. It was dark all around. The only light came from overhead, which was only enough to illuminate a square section of the ground and a little bit beyond. It must be here." Of course it must have. Where else could it have been? The sphere waves had become so strong before because she was literally on top of it. She surveyed the darkness. Similar to the surface, it had scattered pieces of ancient machines and machina all in pieces. There must have been something devastating down there to leave the place in such shambles. So where could the spheres be stashed? She had looked the are over several times before that item had caught her eye. The incongruous piece with the rest, for it was not a piece of a destroyed mechanism at all, but a whole. She advanced on its silhouette for it was barely seen in the dim light and pulled in forth the see. It was box. Simple as that, but it certainly didn't look that simple in the light. It was sealed by some sort of strange machine, old and nothing she had seen before in her long adventures. "It's in here!" She said placing it on the ground and unsheathing her sword she had kept stashed in the back of her cloak. Whatever the machina was she could tell it was damaged and thus it was going to have to be forced open. She aimed carefully, only wanting the tip of her sword to hit the lock, leaving the contents in tack. She struck down and the frozen machine burst in to pieces scattering like winter storm around her. She flinched, shielding her eyes form the projectile while cursing herself if she had just put a huge hole in the sphere. She didn't the box looked much the same as it did when she had first found it, save a small hole inn the front revealing the shinning contents. She didn't have to consider whether to open it. Paine before her next thought had it opened and was palming the interior. The troubles she had encountered seemed almost nonexistent at the sight, of what was the most prodigious find for the Gullwings. It wasn't just one or two spheres, it was over a dozen, undamaged. Perfectly preserved!

"Paine?" Rikku could barely make out anything as the light continued to dim as the sun lowered in the sky. Paine moved back into the day, holding the prize for Rikku and Icarus to see. "Whooooooohooooo!" Rikku was gone for a moment wit her exhilaration, even Icarus who was by then freezing from the cold jumped for joy.

"That's righ' 'eh. Whad' I tel' ya? Whadya 'no what hard work can brin' ya eh.' Hold on, I'll low'u a rope!"

Paine heard his claim to fame, but didn't mind. She had already opened the chest again, counting, turning sometimes petting her prize. Her prize! Her problems were far way compared to what monumental information she was holding. "What do all of you know?" She asked them, all most wanting to stop then and watch them all however long it would take. That if cold suddenly didn't become more pressing. No, she ha to get these back to the Celsius, back to Shinra. She was going to have to wait to reap the spoils.

It all would have been thus, if all was in their favor. Luck had played their hand that day, if their foundation was more secure it would have been It have must started to move toward when she first landed there, when the hatch lowered, when the light fell in for what must have been the first time in centuries. It must have been programmed to try to escape, that it its mission had failed to leave that place to rendezvous with its comrades, if any still existed. It must have been drawn to the light, like a moth to the flame, like a bee to a flower. It wasn't long after her success before Paine heard the heavy sound of a deep breath, and mechanic motion of limbs. Paine audible cursed and gripped her sword tighter. "Find the sphere and the fiends appear." She should have known. It was always true. The adventure was never over, the prize was never won until the beast was slain, the evil driven out and the damsel in distress rescued. This time she played all parts, the knight, the girl, the thief and the treasure seeker. "Why I am this unlucky! She cursed before scanning around for something to anchor the box. There wasn't much. The first thing in reach was a small metal pole. She didn't know where the strength had come from, whether form adrenalin or else where but it bent it around the box. Securing it tight as it was with its former mechanism. "Rikku!" she yelled and tossed up the several meters to her comrade, hoping in all of Spira that she would catch it. Paine then had both hands to grip her sword, both hands to end that excursion and finally have some peace.

It came, slowly. As though it hadn't waited an eternity to find a way out of the darkness. Heavy footsteps echoed, of giant coming to reap its revenge for wrong doing. It came black, from eons of wait, eons of rusting time passing before it. It cared not for time. It knew not for time. It had the purpose to fulfill, the program to complete and it would not stop until it was.

Paine stayed low, crouched, ready to react should the deranged machina choose to attack. It did nothing but walk, advance constantly and steadily, like the march of time itself. The sound grew with each succession growing louder and louder, a hulking mass in the shadows becoming ever more and more apparent. And it emerged as a ghost from beyond the holy veil of the Farplane, an envoy of darkness suddenly forced before the revealing light of the sun. Paine didn't flinch, she had seen things like this before in the depths of Bevelle or other lost corners of Spira, giants still roamed. It was black, covered in dirt and ash form centuries bellow the surface, the body of a human but mechanics in a comic caricature of a human. It was armed too, Paine could. It was strutted form head to foot in projections of some fashion, guns, weapons meant to smash any opposition. She could imagine what they do. Images of the entire complex being brought to ruin from a stray missile or cannon shot flashed in her eyes. It was too dangerous to fight on foot, anywhere, even if she had all the help in the entire world.

"This is bad." She knew it wasn't going to be easy to just escape. She remembered YSLR-Zero, the gargantuan used by New Yevon to guard the temple, and he remembered the difficulty of dodging those missile-like arms. And she knew, if not by prior knowledge than by instinct, a gut feeling that this machina was superior to most she had seen before, except Vegnagun.

Paine gripped her sword ever tighter. So it was going to be hard then? So she was going to have to fight to get away unscathed, or at most slightly injured. She something that could work. Her best attack dealing with stray machina. Most effective in all her battles, especially when had reduced Vegnagun to pieces. She brought her sword high, on hand suspending the blade above her head and the other toward the ground gathering what strength she had available, the most magic she would be able to project without failing at the technique or straining herself for her escape. She felt the double pulse or her heart, the surge of static from the ground, the lightheadedness from dropped blood pressure. It was working. Her eyes reopened to her blade, luminous with the charged energy. She charged. Arms back. Then up. The blade pulsing like a ticking bomb in her hands. Jumping. Bringing the strike into its steel hide and hearing the report as steel collided with steel. She feel back, as to avoid any possible counter and examine her work.

Paine knew she had hit it. The strain in her arms was proof t enough, but she might as well have not. It was though nothing had happened, like she had stayed in the same position and continued to stare instead of act. The machina didn't react at leas not in a way that was noticeable to her. It had not moved, not performed any action to indicate some sort of intent. Something Paine did notice though. The sound coming from the machina, it was previously unnoticeable, overshadowed by the noise of its legs. It was, a sequence of pitches, some sort of machine language. What it was saying Paine could not divine not did she care. The noise pitched high then stopped all together, which Paine did care about. A moment of silence and the titan began to lift its arm pointing one of the projectile weapons at her.

Paine didn't need any more motivation to realize. But what to do? What to do? She couldn't fight it! It was high several meters. She couldn't jump it quickly enough. It would catch her in the air. The arm. Pointed straight her! Could she do it? Quick enough? No time to guess.

I only took a moment but Paine counted it as a long time. She hit the snow and ice covered ground of the surface with a thud and a tumble, blew the landing but even she had to admit the performance was spectacular. She had used the launcher, the weapon that was pointed at her as a stepping stone to the surface. Charging, jumping and propelling her up before the missile was fired into the darkness. Success, now she just had to run.

Paine hastily and clumsily climbed to her feet, scrambling to get her sword held right before running toward Rikku and Icarus who were ahead of her. Seeing Paine, Rikku jumped up and down trying to find out why the hell the Paine had nearly killed her with the spheres. "Paine what the hell happened?" she asked before noting that Paine was in dead sprint toward her.

"Rikku! Run!"

Paine shouted and the ground behind her exploded in a volcano of black ash, dist and snow. Rikku didn't need anymore words, regardless of what she was thinking she knew better than to stay around and wait for whatever it was to arrive. They weren't going to be able to outrun it. Paine knew enough about machina to realize that they were bit faster than most. And that thing? She knew next to nothing how much range it had on some of those weapons. They had to reach the Celsius. That was their best bet. Despite her and Rikku's strength, fighting that thing wouldn't turn out well for them. The static came into her ear again, a little bit late Paine thought.

"What the hell is going on?!" Buddy screamed over the radio.

"We have some trouble. We need to get out of here!" Paine yelled into the earpiece in gasps of air. She heard the sound of the mechanized footsteps in the distance. That machina was on the ground and intent on destroying them.

Buddy must have noticed it too, whether visually or with the instruments on the Celsius. "Roger! We'll pick you up pronto!"

They reached in only a few minutes, despite the length of time it took them to reach it in the first place. The rope they used to send dangling in the mountain wind. They didn't waste time with it this time. A report, a distant explosion from behind. It was firing at them! The shell was off; far off striking the cliff face and sending hard rain of ice and rock onto the three, making Icarus go into double time. He reached the summit well before Rikku, who wasn't far behind.

Paine saw Rikku get to the top, climbing over the edge, looking back. Paine motioned her to keep going. There wasn't any use in spheres being lost, under any circumstances.

She was almost there. A few more meters. Her legs were burning.

The day had started bad and just had gotten worse, and the stakes were high.

She slipped, making her leg against jagged rock. Blood was running down her leg.

If she just could get to Celsius, fly away from the damn thing.

Icarus was already there, that damn coward.

Over a dozen spheres. A mystery of Spria.

There. Her hand gripped the top.

It was coming. She was trying not to think about it.

Yuna must be so comfortable. On Besaid…

Paine had heard the report, the loud audibile sound of that thing's cannons fire. It didn't hit her. Maybe she should be grateful for that? She wasn't dead but it was possible she was soon going to be. The force of the shell exploding against the cliff through like a rag doll. Paine hated the sensation, it had happened to her few times before. The feeling of wind enveloping her, then the sudden impact of the ground. Why was she being thrown around so much that day? It hurt. It was moment before she was able to push her self back to her feet. A knife suddenly split into her right shoulder. It was dislocated, great for her chances at putting up a survivable fight.

It came at her slowly. As though it didn't consider her dangerous. It slowed ever more until it stopped altogether, scanning her from the distance. "What are you starring at?" Despite the pain she gripped her sword with both hands. She wouldn't die there if she had the choice.

Her heartbeat. It slowed again.

Paine felt a sudden feeling in her chest. What was it? She looked at that thing, that machina, the damn thing that was making her time there so difficult. That thing that was guarding those spheres. That thing that seemed to be waiting for her for thousands of years. She didn't know it. Paine had never seen it before. Why then was feeling that way?

The machina raised it arm the long howitzer adjusting its sight toward her.

Power. The pain in her shoulder was gone, and she was feeling it. That pit, that pool.

A flash, and the lightning shot over the water. She saw it again. That stranger over the water. Why?

It was about to fire, loading the shells into the barrel. Not then. Paine wasn't going to die there. The cannon fired. She threw her sword, but it much more than just her sword that flew at the machine. A storm of blades, a maelstrom of steel, fire, brimstone, and energy more than anything she had ever possessed. Flashes of red and crimson lightning. Sword and flame. Skull and metal.

The machina was annihilated, blown to pieces. At least Paine hoped that was so. Her blood pressure went again very low. Her legs gave out from under her. The world went red and pale and though she was dieing. The static was in her ear again, but she couldn't her anything Buddy was trying to tell her. "What is this," she thought to herself, "what did I just do? Where did that come from?" She thought about over and over again. Before Spira washed away in a bloody haze.

"I see her now. Who is she?"

Please review! For the sake of my soul if not your own!

Thank you all for reading.

-Stonehenge


	3. Chapter 3

Awaken

A drop of blood striking the water, and the peaceful chime of the clock. Time moved on despite pain, despite suffering despite horror, despite justice, despite truth, despite love. The soulless age coming, and the awakening, the quickening of the heart.

Paine awoke gradually, sometimes falling back into a days and sometimes opening her eyes, each time slowly movimg closer to consciousness. But still for over a half hour she rolled about on her bed in a deep haze, a drowsy state between sleep and life. Her eyes opened finally seeing the ceiling she had become accustomed to over the past year. The lines, the grooves, the seems where the pieces of metal of the machina they had become comforting in geometric sense, though he had never really gained an appreciation at that point for the aesthetics of machina interior design. They told her she was back onboard the Celsius. They told her she was now safe. The Celsius!

Paine sat up rapidly, only to have a pulsing and ripping headache throw her back down on her back. The Celsius! She had lived. She had survived somehow. That abominable snowman she had encountered hadn't blown her to pieces. But how, she thought. "How did I get away?" She saw the hulking mass running toward her. She saw the cannon running toward her. She heard the report, mussel flash and the sound of the shell splitting the air at supersonic speeds. She then remembered the strength she felt. The power bursting through her body. The storm of blades she had thrown at that thing. The red light that enveloped her. "I did it." She said softly. "I destroyed that thing?" She knew it was true, but none of the mystery was revealed.

She sat for moment overwhelmed by the headache and the memory of that past day. She looked out the window. They were flying over the ocean again. They had left that place safely. They had succeeded in finding the spheres.

The spheres. Rikku must have gotten them back, and had gotten her back. Paine breathed in overcoming the ache form her head as well as the pain in her legs, her arms form that day. She hesitated for a moment, putting a hand on her left shoulder hesitantly moving her arm. The dislocation had been corrected. The pain was gone. Did Rikku heal her? She ignored it. She wanted to find out what those spheres contained. Most of her garments had removed hastily, as they were chaotically scattered around her sleeping bed. She tried to put the image of Rikku undressing her out of her mind, focusing on just getting to the bridge.

She jumped of the second story of the cabin; ignoring the slurred "Good morning" she received from their hypello Barkeep. A sort walk and impatient wait on the lift and she was there coming in on a heated conversation between the rest of the Gullwings.

More specifically between Rikku and Brother.

"No," Brother said, turning his back to Rikku, and Paine ho had just entered mostly unnoticed. Rikku suddenly became indignant.

"Uh! C'mon!" Rikku retorted.

"No!" Brother said again, trying to look proud with his back turned.

"Why not?!"

"Because…I will not have that stupid guy on my ship!" Brother yelled.

Maybe it was the comment about my ship, or the comment of the supposed "stupid guy" that set Rikku off, for she immediately jumped Brother from behind and started a fury of curses in Al Bed. Paine could've cared less for an argument between the two. It was commonplace over the year on the Celsius with them, but she was alsi used to knowing what was going on. Buddy was standing by the stairs watching the scene as Shinra typed with his fingers of flame on his consol, she guessed he was analyzing the spheres Paine had found. She stood by him and asked, " What's all this about?"

"I see you're up finally. Well in addition to the spheres we picked up the pieces of that colossus you destroyed back in the mountains. The machina technology on that thing was significantly different than any we've seen before. Rikku had the idea to give the pieces to the Machine Faction, since they probably have the best expertise in ancient machina."

"I see, and Brother doesn't like that plan…" Paine said.

"Because he doesn't want to give Gippal anything important or that could be important." No charity for the lazy. Paine didn't have any opinion on what o do about the machina. Despite the fact she was the hero that blew it up. "Which if I may…" Buddy said after a moment.

Paine had an idea. "Yeah?"

"How exactly did you do that back there?" She guessed it, but that didn't mean she had any better response for him. What did she really do? How did she have the power to beat that thing? Paine tired to say something about it, but when she opened her mouth the eloquence of words she had thought up suddenly transformed into silence.

"I think that should be pretty obvious. After all Paine had just gotten the thing." Shinra didn't bother to even look behind him.

"Well why don't you tell us then. What did Paine do?" Buddy asked.

The room seemed to stop for a moment for Paine. It was suddenly quiet, silent as everyone waited. Even Rikku and Brother had ceased their shenanigans for the moment to hear the explanation. "The dress sphere."

"Her dress sphere did that?" Buddy exclaimed. "There's no way…"

"Her special dress sphere," Shinra said casting away Buddy's skepticism.

"Her what?" Brother said.

"Your special dress sphere Paine? Oooo! Wait!" Rikku jumped for joy at remembering.

"The sphere Tromel had given to Yuna in the Malancia Woods," Paine said. "That was awhile ago."

"Yes it took that long to analyze and adapt that thing for use in your garment grid Paine. About six months actually," Shinra said.

"Six months to analyze a sphere?!" Buddy said.

"Yeah, it was unlike any other we had come across and definitely the most powerful dress sphere we have."

"So it was my special dress sphere that destroyed that thing? How? I didn't even know I had it on." Paine hoped their genius could have the answer.

"Yeah. I mean it looks like you didn't even tell her she was using the thing. Then how could it have destroyed that machina?" Bother asked.

There was a moment of silence, a pause before the storm, before the divine truth would be revealed. "I'm just a kid." How disappointing.

Paine rolled her eyes at the predictable response. It was very typical of Shinra to do things without telling anyone, like give her a very powerful dress sphere without even telling her. "Would have been useful to have known I had the thing."

"No kidding. Shinra that dress sphere knocked her unconscious. Might have killed her," Buddy said.

"Not to mention the dreams." Paine said drawing looks from around the room.

"Dreams." A chorus sang.

"Is it like the ones Yunie was having when she was wearing Lenne's dress sphere?"

"Sort of."

"That being said, Paine do you think it would be better to not wear that special dress sphere till we know more about it?" Buddy asked her.

Maybe. Paine thought. She remembered the vision, the stranger over the pool. That machina in the water. "That isn't possible."

The eyes turned to Shinra. "It's not like the typical dress spheres we have. It's integrated into the garment grid. It can't be removed at this point."

"So I'm stuck with wearing it at the moment. Can you at least tell me how to use the thing?" Paine asked.

"I'm just a kid."

"Great." It was news for her. A stupendously powerful dress sphere, enough to destroy a machina without her knowledge. And she couldn't use it. It was up to the memory of its past user to dictate the terms. She didn't like it. But then what was she really supposed to do about it? "Forget it then. How about the spheres?"

Shinra tuned back to his consol typing furiously. "These spheres you found are incredibly old. Different from all the other spheres we've found."

"That makes sense. That place looked like it had been isolated for a thousand years or more," Buddy while an indicator went off at the helm.

"Give me about fifteen minutes. That'll be enough time to finish analysis on the first sphere."

"That'll work out," Buddy said from the guidance helm. "We'll be at Besaid in about the time."

Good. Paine excluded herself from the proceedings of the bridge for the deck. The wind blowing through her silver hair, chilling her exposed. It was simpler than the fast world of sphere hunting. The stranger. That colossus. The spheres. The special dress sphere. What did it all mean? Was it her turn after Yuna? Was she now someone important? No. She knew it. Her luck, her god, her rules that ruled her life, didn't permit that sort of thing. It was just coincidence.

The clouds we thinning and the air became the faintest bit warmer. Paine fin4ally could see Besaid in the distance.

(A/R) Author's rant: To all those who don't review. I asked you why? Is it so hard just to write a two word phrase, like "good job" or "nice write?" I plead everyone. Just review please!

Thank you for reading nonetheless. I do hope this didn't suck.

-Stonehenge


	4. Chapter 4

Reveal

"I don't believe it! You can keep your faith to yourself. I'll have no part in this."

"But my friend, you see, we are five. And we are ones with the ability, and therefore the responsibility to act. In the name of god…"

Besaid to Paine had become something special despite the fact it was wholly unfamiliar to her. She had only visited it a handful of times. Yet the magic, and the subtly hidden love in that place was overwhelming. She couldn't help but feel it was a bit of paradise. A rose in the dark garden of Spira. And Yuna was largely the reason for it. The impossible things she had done, her pleading voice of reason and friendships, fellowship and love. These things after a thousand years of darkness Spira took to like a bird to its nest. The ruins were no longer feared, but explored. The devastation was no longer left, it was wiped away. Death no longer ruled, but life. Even the rift in Paine's own past was healed, the gorged that had separated Gippal, Baralai and Nooj. Paine thought it was remarkable. Just as the person Yuna was with. That man of a dream.

The Celsius was clearing the clouds finally. Besaid Island had apparently endured some soft rains, just before they had arrived and the target shore was still rather soggy. Paine could see the village, the old Yevon temple, the small accompanying buildings and the ruins scattered throughout the rest of the Island, the reminder of the judgment Sin had reaped upon them. That had been pushed aside two years ago. She no longer had to fear the sea, the night. No one did. Paine turned to exit the deck, climbing back through the electronic doors of the lift just as the vibrations from the landing thrusters rumbled through the ship. The Celsius had landed.

"We're back!" Rikku shouted as the massive door of the engine room opened revealing the sunlight. "Whoo!" Rikku ran out through the portal before it had completely opened. Paine didn't fell the need to be that enthusiastic, though she had to admit to herself. It was so much nicer to be back on Besaid as opposed to where they were.

Yuna was waited for them on the ground just beyond the shadow of the Celsius in the sunlight. He was there too. Tidus, the man from the Farplane. That someone who was the catalyst, the primer, the reason for why Yuna had become a sphere hunter. And thus he was the reason Paine even met Yuna. She was almost not prepared for the incoming Rikku. "Welcome back everyone." Rikku was spinning her around like a wheel.

Paine watched the scene with amusement. Like before, of course it wasn't really long ago at all. Yet still she felt like Yuna had suddenly gone through a metamorphosis, like she had suddenly changed from the person she was not that long ago. Then again he was there. Paine looked him over. They looked so similar. Shuyin, the man who tired to destroy Spira, and him. The man who had saved it from Sin with Yuna, two years ago. "These two years," Paine said to herself. Tidus turned his attention to Paine, smiling brightly, waving her down.

"So what's up?" Tidus asked her. "You guys got that done pretty fast."

"We sure did!" Rikku said. "Paine found it. A box that had thirteen spheres!"

"Thirteen?" Yuna was surprised, it was a lot more than any find they had when she was still a Gullwing.

"Thirteen." Paine confirmed.

"Well, have you watched them all yet?" Tidus asked.

"Shinra was still analyzing when we got here. You want to watch them?" Paine said tauntingly.

"Ha, is that a question Paine?" he responded.

"Well then come aboard!" Rikku said, racing back on board the Celsius with Tidus in hot pursuit. Paine stayed for a moment. Like a child. Despite everything, all the weighty things that had happened to him, he was still so much of a kid. Paine thought back she wasn't so different only a few years ago. Where had that side of her gone? "She's still inside you." Yuna had said that to her one time.

Yuna looked happier than ever, a good sign, Paine thought. If there was anyone who ever deserved such bliss in all the World's existence, it was Yuna. The High Summoner, the daughter of a High Summoner, the one who exposed the foulest deception, and the one that brought Spira's Sin to an end.

"You look sastisfied," Paine remarked.

"Do I? I'm sorry," she said sheepishly.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Paine said, and began to advance the stairs.

"It's just…so nice. I never really realized how much I had missed him. I never realized hoe hard it was," she sounded said for a moment, but it was as brief as the morning breeze. Paine could tell, she was just too happy then, for anything to really spoil it. "But I kinda wish we had come with you. Thirteen spheres! It must have been fun."

Paine remembered falling through the thin sheet of ice, down into that foreboding cavern. "Oh Yeah, it was a lot of fun."

"Give me a moment!" Shinra "fingers of flame" went into triple time. They had already that a moment ago and the moment before that. Tidus especially was getting bit impatient.

"C'mon! How long are you going to take with this thing? You keep saying 'one moment.'" Tidus threw his hands over his head.

"Yeah c'mon!" Rikku said.

"Just a couple of seconds." There was a group moan of agony.

"Shinra what's taking you so long? You said you would have it done when we arrived on Besaid," Paine asked.

"The encoding on these things is very…"

"Old?" Yuna inquired.

"Dense, and old I guess. Each time I think I have it I find more that I haven't decoded."

"Well why do you have to decode it anyway? Can't we just watch it?" Tidus complained more than asked.

"We won't see anything if the code on the sphere data isn't broken. Think of it as the key the machina needs to solve the puzzle." Shinra's typing increased again. "There's also a lot of video on this thing. It's the longest movie sphere I've seen."

"How much does it have on it?" Paine questioned.

"Right now it looks about…nineteen hours worth." A frenzy of stammers and shouted exclamations followed his comment.

"Nineteen hours! Wade 'ago Dr. P!" Rikku said while jumping onto her in a very warm embrace.

"Alright!" Tidus concurred.

"You think there is something important on it?" Yuna asked him.

"There has to be. At least one of the nineteen hours must be important!" A chirp emanated from Shinra's station.

"Analysis complete. At least mostly any way. As far as I can tell this one just has video on it.

"Well turn it on. Let's get started!" A chorus sang.

(A/N) How do ya like that? If you have a comment you'll be compelled to review. At least I hope.

Thank you for reading.

-Stonehenge


	5. Chapter 5

Listen to Distant Voices

There was darkness. The end, but also the beginning. The death of all things but also the birth. The crypt but also the womb. In here all things are born, like the universe it self. Onto darkness light has meaning, it becomes more than just white, more than just colors. Light becomes Truth. And thus true stories are told over a canvass of darkness, the true carte blanch, the alpha to all things. And into which we go to find our own Truths.

The screen was dark, for a moment only but it was long enough for everyone to start to question. They asked and they thought, "Would this old sphere actually work." Then the screen blinked with light, again, again twice as fast. A static, a background of light then came on and suddenly they were seeing. Someone gasped, but she ignored as much as she could. What am I looking at? Where is that place?

The audio suddenly was working and then they were hearing a voice. "eh…uh…Damn!..." was all they heard for moment. Paine had experience with recorders, but it looked like the user in question did not. "Ok! Finally! Hey I got it working!"

"Hoop la! " a voice said. Where did it come from. All there was the distance noise of water running. The voice sounded a bit annoyed.

"Ah C'mon. You know how much this thing cost me? A brand new camera!" The first voice said. They were starring at the room. Was it their living space?

"I don't know and I don't really care." The other voice said.

"Yeah, you make it point to make sure you don't," the first voice said. What in all of Spira… "Ok the date is Gamma 195, about 9:20 in the morning October 23rd. I'm Lt. Commander Alvin Riley. And this is my room!" The camera jerked violently around. There were two beds, night stands and other things Paine couldn't identify.

"When the hell was that?"

"Just be quiet Tidus."

"Ok…well half of it is my room actually. I share it with my entirely less qualified colleague. A certain Captain O'Neil. He sleeps in that bed right there. Hey wait! O'Neil!"

"What?"

"Where'd my…thing go?"

"Your what?" The voice seemed to be coming from wherever the sound of running water was.

"That whatever we got two days ago." What the hell were they talking?

"Your 'Notice of Assignment?'"

"Yes!"

"Look's like they're soldiers," that was all Paine could pull from the scene.

"Don't you have it on you?"

"C'mon don't you think I would've noticed that…Oh wait." The water seemed to take up all the sound for a moment.

"See?"

"Can we fast-forward this thing?" It was Rikku.

"Just be patient."

"Ahh, O'Neil, you ever going to get out of there? Or are you taking the chance, now that we're leaving to use up Kennedy's hot water? I like long and hot showers like everyone, but you keep this up and we're going to be late."

"It's nine now, the ceremony isn't until eleven o'clock sharp. We have plenty of time. Relax."

"Yeah, I'll relax. You're the one O'Neil. You wanted this assignment."

"And you didn't?"

"Mmmm, true." The camera moved, focusing on the wall. Then pointed down. What was it? They could make it out, it was picture, of whom? Of them?

"The last night I'll stay in here…" The water shut off. And the camera swerved, around, blurring the lights into an amalgam of color, before focusing again. "Ya coming out finally. Ya know I figured you would shot over the Horus before the sun even came up. But no. I admit it! I was wrong. You have to take an hour shower instead." There was rustling behind, like the sound of a predator moving through the brush. "But I did finally figure this thing. And they charged me 15 big ones for this! Ha!"

"There's nothing on this. We should move on to the next one." Paine didn't like wasting time. Especially with the personal stories of some dead crusaders. "Let's turn it off."

"Wait I think he's going to come out!" Paine had to sigh, Yuna actually sounded interested in the story of these two.

A door opened. Paine felt a chill of interest. Finally she was seeing someone. It wasn't just the ramblings two men. The screen focused in close, then let out finding the face of the man emerging from the entrance. "And here he is everyone! A first generation! A Captain of the IRF! A recipient of the Congressional Medal of Freedom, and certifiably under-loved, mildly insane friend of mine…"

Red eyes met Paine's, fierce, powerful, yet movingly sad, and at that moment annoyed. "Shut up."

"…Blaze O'Neil. Everyone show him and warmth and affection please, cause he doesn't get enough of it in his own love life…"

"Uh" He, the one who might be called O'Neil cast his head up, as if he was praying for deliverance from the holder of the recorder.

"C'mon O'Neil, is it really that bad to leave. I was serious when I said…" He stopped suddenly as if some dark realization acme over him. What was it? Why did he stop talking? What was so important? The camera focused on him, O'Neil Paine an odd sympathy. For some reason he seemed so sad, so beaten by something. He wasn't a crusader she knew that for certain then. The uniform he was wearing. No armor. No sword. Some strange insignias, symbols of Spira's past. Had she seen them before? He was holding something, opening it. The camera zoomed in to hands. A white container, pouring out four capsules. O'Neil took all four consuming them in one swallow.

"Geeze O'Neil. After all this time it's still hurting you that much?"

"Yeah."

"My god. I can't say I envy you."

"Don't."

Paine realized, she had lost herself for a moment in her interest. It was just a sphere. These two were long dead. "Let's take a break from this." She needn't some time. Some distraction from that sphere.

The sphere ended. The screen went back to default background, a comfortable blue, calm away from that sphere.

"What was that about?" Tidus asked.

"It's weird. It's like their personal video…thing," Rikku stated.

"That's exactly what it is. Junk." Paine walked toward the exit.

"You going to watch the rest of it?" Yuna asked her.

"Later." And the silver hair left the bridge.

"Paine!" Yuna said to the closing bridge door. "Hm." It was kinda strange. Paine didn't usually have such strong feelings when they looked at something as benign as a sphere. What could be the cause?

"What's up with her?" Tidus remarked with tone so nonchalant it almost seemed offensive. "Yuna?"

"Why aren't you hearing me?"

Paine was trying to clear her head. It pounded with a migraine. An intense pulse with each beat of her heart, bringing an abrasive sting to her mind. It started when they were watching the spheres, each time she heard them speak. "What the hell?" She didn't get this way. Ever! And especially never from watching such a mundane sphere! "Why?"

"Can't you understand that?"

Whispers? Where were they coming from?

"Hey, what do you think of it? It's pretty cool if you ask me."

"I am not hearing this. It's just in my imagination," Paine said to herself.

"After all this time…still hurting…"

"It's a lot of pain. I warn you…"

"Shut up." She walked faster. Her footsteps suddenly seemed like stone falling against a piece of sheet metal. She fell against one side of the corridor supporting herself with her hands.

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

"Wonderful…now I have to put up with two of you."

"I hate it! I hate this world of greed and blasphemy."

"Do you miss them…let someone in…"

"I can't let do this unless you sign..."

"The best food ever Blaze. I'm tellin' ya. These eggs…whoa!"

"For the brightest possible future…It will serve the greater good…"

"It'll be another holy war if we keep this up? Do you think society will survive the next thousand years?"

"A Captain of the IRF…"

"Sin and sin…all of it."

"Stop."

She was weakening.

"I can't take much more of this."

Paine clutched the wall, leaning her head. They kept on getting louder. Louder.

"I'd be lying if I said didn't love it."

"Shut up."

"What do you think you're doing?"

"You'll never know anything if you don't listen…"

"This is great! I tell ya Blaze! The best camera ever!"

"SHUT UP!" Paine shot through her hand. She hand punched the wall. Nearly as hard could, and the dent in the metal reflected that. She breathed deeply, slowly, trying to get her nerves under control. They had stopped, but why did she have to suffer through this? "What did I do?"

"Paine?"

She turned, it was Yuna. "Are you alright?" It was superfluous question.

Paine knew she wasn't really. Hearing voices that aren't there isn't a good thing. "Yeah, I'm fine Yuna."

"I can see that…What's going on?"

It was stupid to try and hide it. "Shinra hooked up that special dresssphere. The powerful one we got from Tromel. He hot wired to my garment grid…And now I'm…"

"Hearing things?"

Paine didn't even nod. Was she weak, or could she not stand the thought?

"So it's like mine…with Lenne…"

Paine nodded. It was ironic, now it was happening again. "Got any advice?"

"Well you can take it off…" Paine shook her head. "Uh…well with time, wearing the songstress became a lot easier. So just give it a while."

"And take sleeping pills I guess," Paine said jokingly.

"You've been dreaming too?" Yuna said trying to console her. Paine appreciated it. Coming from Yuna she knew it was genuine. But it did not work. "Maybe watching the spheres can get your mind things?"

"Appreciate it. But I think I'll go for a walk. See you around." And the silver hair left the Celsius.

"She's quite a find for you, my friend. But it's much too late."


	6. Chapter 6

A time for meteor

"It's pain…I warn you, it will not be pleasant."

Paine walked. A somber walk it was, lonely and quiet with only the wind of the paradise island to comfort her. And it was comforting. Simplicity, sometimes she found it pleasing, though she had a taste for the complex. Patterns, designs, glyphs of past embodied that perception. It was one appealing fact of sphere hunting, seeing these immensely complicated things, long forgotten in history. Complexity was beautiful, but simplicity was soothing. Flying on the airship, walking the sands, those things brought her mind back to earth. Away from all the mysteries of the future, and the pains of the past.

She had been waling on the shore for nearly a half hour by her sense of time. The Celsius was no longer visible despite its enormity around the rocks and slopes of the Besaid peaks. She thought of turning around several times. Staying with her friends and watching the rest of spheres. She should, she knew that much. She was the one. She had given the effort and she wanted to know the past. Yet Paine still felt a loathing, no a fear of returning. Something inside was apprehensive fearful of could be found. Watching those two it had some pain to it, some suffering. Him, O'Neil he looked so pitiful to her. Why? He had no connection to her. None.

"It's this dress sphere," she said aloud. Indeed, that last few days she had unexpected feelings towards things that had never bothered her before. He even annoyance at Rikku, her sudden need to go on deck several times during the day. It was all the damn dresssphere, powerful and so integrated into her garment grid that she was now stuck with it.

A rage came forth, not the sphere but her own, born from frustration with her predicaments. She reached to the sand and grabbed a stone, lobbing with a great burst of strength into the ocean. It went far, but nothing she had never performed before. It was need less though. Why be so angry? She usually kept a degree of calm. From her past…she could deal with almost anything. And she has.

The sun was still rising in the sky. It was still midday. Still time to walk and put things into perspective. There was still time to go back and see all spoils of her adventure wit the colossus. That thing that bore so much firepower that would have killed her if not for that sphere. "This sphere…Maybe I should be glad…" She starred into the sun, hoping for divine intervention, a sign of agreement, from the fayht, or anyone. None came.

Paine reached the dry sand, white unspoiled by anyone, shaded bay a palm tree with stellar view of the distant ocean. Perfect to ruin. She fell back lying in the shade, supporting her cranium with her arms. "What's your dream Paine? What are you hoping for in the Calm?" She had been asked before.

"I just want it to stop…" Time, it seemed to slow to where nothing happened. No Sin created for vengeance; no mislead operations where friends die.

She could have stayed there a long time. Not an eternity, but she was ready to fall asleep and head back to the airship when the sun was beginning to set. She could have stayed for a long time and let the world slid away from her. But she couldn't stay that long. She wouldn't leave her friends for that long, because even loneliness becomes tiring.

An hour or two passed. She wasn't keen on its passage. Hell, maybe it was three. In any event she felt calm at least. For a brief moment she had forgotten about the dresssphere and sphere hunting in general and total. That was good sign that her mind was ready to return. The sky was beautiful in twilight. The crossroads of words, of light and darkness starring into which any person even with the darkest of hearts can feel wonder. And a meteor fell…

"A meteor!" She said aloud, suddenly enveloped with warmth from her childhood. Falling stars, signs from heaven and another world. They were so rare in Spira. She couldn't imagine why they rarely reached their world. And there was one, a falling star. Something she had not seen in many years. One and then another one. "I must be lucky." One more, two more. "What?"

"You see it now." A voice from the side. There was no one there.

"You have to find him." The other side. No one.

"Who?" she said.

"You must. You see he'll die if you don't." A sword! It plunged into her stomach and she felt her soul melt away. A tear ran down her check. "Why is this happening to me?"

She noticed she was standing. The pain was gone. Twilight was begging to fade and she suddenly felt afraid for someone she didn't know and had never seen.

"Paine?" This time it was Tidus, that man she had recently met. He had come out to fetch her. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," she was really, just a little frightened. She told herself that whatever it was it couldn't hurt her. Really? "It's just…"

"The dresssphere right?"

She paused. "Yeah. So it's not important."

"Your sanity isn't important?"

She laughed. She should, she needed to get control of it. Shinra probably would come up with something. Soon? Hopefully he would not take a life time.

"You should come in," Tidus said.

"Why? I'm a big girl. I can handle myself in the dark."

"Not that. But there's a little more to that sphere Shinra found that you might find interesting."

She conceded. She was actually interest in what was in the thing. It was just that dresssphere that was getting out of hand. Maybe it would stay quiet for a while? She brushed some sand that had silently stuck to her like leeches of the beach and followed the man she had just met back to the Celsius.

"How peaceful it is here. It's starting to upset me."

_-Stonehenge. _


	7. Chapter 7

A Glimpse of Freedom

"Don't you see what this means? It's a new world."

Heart of darkness, mother of all things, won't you show us what truth is and lies not?

The screen was dark when they started, and Paine had been under the impression that they had it all figured out. It came to life and a chill of interest came over the group with only to be crushed by the disappointment of static. The disappointment was audible, then scuffling and sounds of annoyance came from the genius Shinra.

"What's the matter? Having trouble?" Rikku said coyly.

"Gimme a break," He responded and continued to press numerous controls on the consol before him. Paine sighed; she still had to deal with frustration no matter what.

"I thought you had it fixed?" Buddy inquired to which Shinra did not even honor with a reply.

"Shinra?" Yuna said, the only voice that didn't hold some ire.

"This sphere is incredibly old. The computer is having trouble reading the information on it because it's…" He trailed off.

"…Old?" Rikku said. And Paine was sure if she could have seen his face, Shinra would have been scowling. Static and then suddenly it cleared and there it was the swiveling motion of the original recorder. It window, or some thing like that, but they could see the beach outside it. At least to them it looked like a beach. Then it went black the audio of the sphere moaned with noise as though it had been wounded in battle. "Awe." Rikku exclaimed beating her fists into the floor.

"Just a second I'm taking the footage back to when I think the recorder was next activated.

Paine breathed in but not of boredom, but of impatience. She suddenly had the thought that perhaps there was some great secret on that sphere. A great secret? "Freedom," she said almost, but didn't now she said it. It was almost. It was almost just the sound of her lungs breathing in air. Tidus heard her, but said nothing. Shock and jock, and then there was the light of the seen they had just witnessed.

"There," a voice said. It was one of the same men from before. "Hey Blaze! I got it to turn on again. I thought that the battery was dead or something. But no, I'm stupid apparently. "

The camera swung up, and there he was again. The man with red eyes Paine had seen.

"Apparently?" He stated mockingly. Red eyes turned toward the window, starring into far off worlds.

"C'mon. I just got this thing. Someone has to record the big event. This is a big assignment for us."

The other laughed.

"Okay it might not be a big assignment for you, but it is for me. You there was a big gap between the first an second generations my friend," the camera shifted and suddenly the group could see out the passing window. Beautiful and white surf, it was stunningly familiar to the Island they were on at that moment.

"Are they flying?" Yuna said. Paine for a moment thought the comment foolish until noticed Yuna was right. The image seemed like it had bee shot from the inside of an airship.

"They're defiantly on some sort of airship," Buddy said.

"I wish we could get a better look at it," Tidus remarked.

The camera jerked, static invading for a moment as the picture suddenly lurched toward the window. Recorded sounds of unrest could be heard over the audio. "God dammit Riley."

"I'm sorry Blaze. I just want to get a better look at the ship as we approach. Didn't mean to step on you."

"I kind of want to see it to, you know," the soldier Blaze said, sounding somewhat unhappy.

"You will. You can watch the record later. Ha. Oh yeah!" Something was appearing. Buildings, structures, dark shapes of yore in the distance.

"Whoa, hey Shinra can you enlarge that part?" Buddy asked.

The sphere stopped as the fingers of flames went to work. "I can just give me second." The screen blinked, black as night to bright as day and suddenly the dark shaped were enlarged to take up the full size of the Gullwings sphere-screen.

Paine felt a twitch of wonder in her see knew to genuinely her own. Her own wonder at seeing the past come alive. "It's…"

"It's like…Zanarkand," Yuna said over everyone.

"Yeah it is." Rikku affirmed.

"Sort off." They all turned to Tidus who had spoken up. "I mean yeah it kind resembles Zanarkand, but it's just…"

"A little different," Paine finished.

"Yeah."

Indeed, there similar, and from the distance they did look the same. But those buildings had a different feel, a different soul. They seemed more industrial, less focused on aesthetics and more on function. Paine could see some of that. And see guessed that place upon the screen was a military base, which she would be correct.

"Well this sphere predates most things we found. Who knows? Maybe it predates even Zanarkand," Buddy stated, and everyone murmured with interest at the thought. Before Zanarkand? No one, nothing they knew stretched back that far in time. The possibility unto itself was dangerous. But what else could be more exciting?

"Maybe…" Paine said. "Let's keep watching." Everyone echoed in agreement.

The sphere screen returned to normal, normal view for the recorder that is. And a moment later the story was rolling again. Images of the ancient structures persisted.

"There it is! Ain't she beautiful Blaze!"

"Yeah, like you have never seen Rigley Base before," he said sarcastically.

"So? That was back when I was just an enlistee. Now I am actually somewhat important."

"Semi-important," he said.

"Don't you lord your rank over me." The camera jerked back toward him, the man with red eyes. "I've been a centurion for over three years now and I…whoa" The voice stopped and a roar similar to that of the Celsius' engines could be heard over the audio. The ship was turning very quickly.

"Looks like we're on the final approach," another voice said, not from either of those men though. Paine and everyone heard it, it was definitely feminine. The camera jerked and suddenly a young woman, at least se looked young, with dark hair and in full uniform like the other two soldiers stood there.

"Major," the soldier with red eyes said. "It's good to see you again."

"Major? Is that a name?" Rikku inquire.

"You too Blaze. You both can sit down," her hasil eyes met the camera as she joined them. "Nice camera Commander."

"Who is she?" Yuna wondered.

"Thank you ma'm," the voice behind the camera said. "You know this captain here doesn't really appreciate it."

"Yes he never found any technology amazing. Even when I worked with him," she turned to him smiling slyly, but with a faint air of nostalgia. She turned back to the camera extending her hand. "Lt. Commander Riley isn't it?"

A hand appeared from the bottom of the screen meeting the "Major's."

"Yes ma'm. You must be Major Ishida."

"Yes," she responded. "Elaine Ishida."

"That's her name!" Brother shouted.

"Would you shut up?" Rikku chastised.

"I'm kind of surprised to see you here," she said to the soldier with red eyes. "Or anywhere in the military anymore."

"They won't let me retire," he said, somewhat reluctantly.

"Yeah, they won't let any of us do that. Not while there's a war anyway," she looked away. "You should know better than that."

"A war?" Buddy was saying. "Do they mean the machina war a thousand years."

"It has to be. What other war was there?" Rikku said.

"Yeah," Paine said. But she felt like they were missing everything that was said on the sphere. "But those buildings don't look like anything from Bevelle."

"I have to record this. The two of you…" The voice from behind the camera was saying.

"Can't you turn that off now?" The soldier with red eyes said with a groan.

"No way. I never thought I would meet one of you guys. But look at me now! I'm sitting with two of the Five. The fighting Five. My mother is going to love this."

The "major" was laughing. "You're one of the Second Generation?"

"Yes ma'm. On assignment with the Captain right here."

"That's good…for you too," she said to the soldier with red eyes. He heard. Paine could see some reaction behind his eyes. But he just kept starring out if the window pretending the other two were not there. "C'mon Blaze. I know you're excited about this." Still no response.

"He's not always like this maim," the voice behind the camera said.

"Just when he's annoyed…or embarrassed."

The soldier shook his head. "Major, I just want to get a look at the ship as we come in."

"Another ship?" It was Buddy.

"Of course you do," the "major" said.

"We're here," the soldier said. Loud sounds from invisible engines came over the audio. The camera swerved and new images out of the recorded window came into Spira.

"All right," the voice behind said. The camera zoomed in and out, trying to focus on a hulking mass in the distance. Focus and unfocused, and sounds of fury and frustration came over the audio. "C'mon…there!" And suddenly things became clear.

Paine's mouth opened slightly, shaping to very faintest sense of a smile. A sounds and questions of the sight echoed through the bridge of the Celsius, a great ship, but of the likes they were seeing on the viewer. It was alien in most of their senses, but they knew it was a ship and they knew it flew in the air.

"There it is everyone! That's it! The Freedom. That's our ship Blaze." The flying transport moved closer, till the camera could no longer take it. "Aw damn!" And the image went to static and the group was riled with requests to bring it back up.

"Hey Shinra, can you bring that back?" Tidus asked.

"That's all I could out of the sphere now. There may be more, just give me sometime."

"You said there was 'nineteen hours,'" Paine said.

"Yes, but not all the video is in good condition. Some of it is just too corrupted to see."

"That ship though…it was…" Yuna began.

"Massive. I don't know, but it could have been three or four times as large as the Celsius," Buddy said.

"That's preposterous!" Brother shouted. "Nothing that big can fly."

"How do you know?" Paine asked, to which Brother glared with annoyance.

"I just know!"

"My analyses did indicate it was a ship, and definitely a warship at that," Shinra said out of nowhere.

"A ship like that? Can you imagine what someone could do with that power?" Yuna said.

"I don't want to," Tidus responded.

"So what does it mean?" Paine inquired to which to entire group fell silent.

"We don't really know," Buddy claimed.

"Yeah," Paine said, and she left the bridge. "Call me if you manage to get more out of it." The sphere that is, or anything of the other twelve.

Paine felt a bit tired. Maybe it was watching the sphere that drained her or just having to deal with all the "Gullwings" on the bridge. It didn't matter, nothing mattered then except that she got some rest. She needed it. That day had brought into her mind a lot of information and frustration. Time was only was the cure to that. She could only be thankful for one thing. She wasn't hearing any voices. She reached the lift and road down to the warm greetings of a Celsius bed. And sleep came quick, and silence evermore.

Oh darkness bright, won't you give me a black dream tonight?

(A/N) I really need feedback people, so a review would be pretty well appreciated. I may even return the favor for those who do review. I'm just saying.

-Stonehenge.


	8. Chapter 8

Six, six, six

Looking without, one tends to forget the enemy within.

And metal comes to life, twisted and melted in the ravages of passion, because even time is not straight and warps around the life within. A flash and the lighting shot across the water. An arcane machine lives beneath, writhing, fluxing, a dark titan, an insipid creation, meant for the tasteless purpose, the destruction of a man. The destruction of one, but the savior of another. Heart of the fulcrum, and it rose from the doom.

She saw him. He stood there before the fury indomitable, powerful. And terror strung from the vision. It had meaning but the meaning to what. She did not know. It rose, wings of black sheath, and blades from stainless steel a fear trailing its shadow as it fell upon Paine.

But all in dreams…

It had been three days. Three risings of the sun, three settings of the sun, three, since Paine had started having those dreams. But they weren't so bad then. She got used to the shadow, used to seeing a colossus like Vegnagun in her sleep. Yuna was right it wasn't so bad. In fact the last night she had no dreams at all just sleep, rest and glorious relaxation. It was good, since she was still somewhat sore from batting that thing in the ice. So she walked slowly toward Besaid village that morning.

She spied the top of the hill now, the peak that was spirit her to Besaid, the monument that stood up there, a testimony to the death and to the Sin. She gazed at her hand. "Maybe I will be able to master this thing," she said to herself. She had used the sphere once. Why not again? "Then I will really be able to kick ass. I could go and school Nooj if he gives me attitude." The wasn't so unappealing.

Static from a radio transmission came into her ear. "Hey." It was Buddy, why would he be calling? "You there yet?"

Paine stopped walking for a moment. "No. What's up?"

"Shinra's decoded some more of the treasure spheres."

"The same one?"

"No. The computer is still unable to read the rest of that one. He's still working on it. He's translated one of the others though."

"Anything worthwhile?"

"You might say that. You guys should come and take a look."

"Alright. I'll them when I get there." The radio call ended. "What now?" The spheres they had found were still a mystery. The only one they watched revealed two soldiers on assignment to some airship. They still didn't have any major answers about Spira's past, despite what they already knew. They still had a lot to watch though. Maybe they held secrets, or maybe the held nothing at all but past stories.

She walked over the hill, past the monument and down to the gate to the village. No one in sight, but it was still early. She walked toward Lulu's tent, where Yuna and Rikku probably were. Inside no one there except silence.

No one?

Paine turned quickly around. The center was Besaid was empty and quiet. "Way too quiet." She grabbed hold of her sword, for so was right. There wasn't anyone there. There was no activity from the tents. So where were they? Fiends couldn't do this, Paine. Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, the entire was too strong to be carried away by fiends. At least normal fiends. There had been no surge in energy though there couldn't have been any high level fiends there. They would have seen them coming. Yuna would have called for the Celsius.

Paine walked into the center of the village. She turned 360 degrees, and nothing. "Did they hall just walked away?" Maybe…

There was on place she hadn't checked. The old stood there silent and ominous. Why would everyone go in there? Paine could find out. "Yuna…" Nothing. "Rikku?" Nothing.

"Damn it. Buddy are you there?" Static was the only response. "What?" She had just been talking to him. She had just told him… "Screw it!" She began to run toward the temple. But then the sounds of pursuit stopped her.

"Again," she thought. Something was behind her. It had been stalking her since she arrived, maybe even before then. She had been caught alone by an enemy again.

A high pitched screech, almost like white noise came from it, but no attack. It sounded mechanical. Paine couldn't stay the way she was, and running probably wasn't the best solution. The fiend may be able to out run her. She clasped her sword tightly and turned, slow deliberately until her red eyes met the eyes of the enemy.

It was a machina, as she had imaged, but not like anything she had seen. An elongated metallic spider it stood there before its color dark as the ground it stood on. But it changed its color turned then the silvery color of steel, then back to the brown color of the ground it stood on.

"It's stealth." Paine said. A covert machine, something made to sneak up on people. Was this the thing that drove everyone out of the village? Just this? It wasn't that much bigger than Paine was, maybe twice her size. Just this drove Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, accomplished warriors to running? Maybe not. Maybe there were more of them.

The screech it kept making the sound. Paine slowly brought her sword, wary that a sudden move may invite attack. She wouldn't be brought by this though. Not after Vegnagun.

A moment, and in the distance a flower fell from the tree on the peaceful Island on Besaid. And then gunfire…

The machina had gone white to steel, changing to its natural color which Paine guessed as to be a sign of aggression. She rushed it, just as the machine gun on the side of the spider became visible and began to fire rounds. She saw it and brought her sword to bear. The gun went silent. It broke more easily than expected. She had it.

Paine pivoted on her foot, bringing her sword down for a killing blow, when the machina jumped away with speed and agility that shocked her. It was the roof of the temple, fifteen feet above morning from its wound. Paine pulled her sword from the dirt, fixing her eyes back on to the enemy, right in time to notice a second machine gun on the opposite side.

"Damn!" Paine didn't think she just jumped, to the side, as hard as she could to avoid being hit. She heard the explosion, the sound, but it was not the sound of gun fire. On her feet and she saw the smoking remains of the machina and the flying blitz ball returning to the hands of its owner.

"Hey!" Wakka, Tidus, and Rikku were running back to the village, rather quickly.

"There you all are. I thought that thing had beaten all of you," Paine said.

"Well, not exactly," Wakka said panting. "Whooh, I'm getting old for this."

"What?"

"Not that's the fiend we were fighting," Tidus said.

"Yeah, the other one is…" A shell exploded in the distance, and the heavy footsteps of an approaching titan became audible.

"Great." Paine had a good idea of what was waiting for them.

"We need your help. The thing's pretty tough," Tidus said.

"Why didn't you call for help?" Paine asked.

"The communicators weren't working. Something was jamming it," Rikku said. "Yuna took the other inside the temple."

Jamming? Paine turned back the smoking remains of the machina. Was it that thing? The screech, it was like a radio noise.

Paine activated her communicator. "Celsius! We might need some back up."

"What's going on?" Buddy asked. "We just got a massive hit on our scanners."

"We're under attack, by a big machina. We'll need the missiles on the Celsius to take it down," Rikku said.

"Roger. It may take a few minutes to warm up the engines. Hold it off until we get there."

"Easier said than done," Wakka said.

A shell exploded above. Paine could see the dust and debris on the mountain-side. Her heart beat, adrenalin pouring into muscle and nerve. "How big is it?"

"Big," was all that Tidus responded. Another shell exploded. "And it has enough fire power to blow up a mountain." Another shell exploded it seemed to be coming closer.

"Well we can't let it get any closer," Paine said, and not knowing what awaited she ran off toward the distant fire and detonations.

"Hey wait for me," Rikku said and ran after her.

"Great. Looks like we're going back Wakka," Tidus picking his sword he had set down. "Let's go."

Wakka took a deep breath in. He hadn't been counting on doing more of this sort of work. He thought he had given up that occupation two years. "Well maybe not…" He said, and worked up the nerve to pick him up and chase after them.

Paine ran, running as though all rested on her shoulders, running as though there was no hope without her reaching there. She was correct in some ways. They had no idea of range of that thing. It may be able to attack the village from any position on the island. Which meant they had to destroy it before it came into sight. There was the other, the spider Wakka had destroyed. Was it just coincidence there were both there? Paine knew, probably not.

Paine ran and within moments she was in sight. Her heart beat. Mammoth, that was what she thought of it. Mammoth, titan, its size was more than double the one she had encountered in the ice, in that lost city. I had no arms, no humanoid resemblance, but was more in coming with the spider-legs. Six legs supporting a torso, armed with everything one could imagine. Paine recognized missile launchers, guns, anti-personal grenade launchers, topping off with an enormous howitzer on a rotating pivot joint, supplement by small canon. This was weapon worse than the machina panzer they had destroyed in the Thunder Plains. But it wasn't invincible.

Paine crouched down on low reed, keeping her head as low she could. He friends weren't with her yet. She must be seen before she can get close, or else she would be blown away by the arsenal of the mammoth. The sphere, it had allowed her to destroy the other machina. But she had no way to control it. They would have to attack it like they did Vegnagun. No problem.

"Hey." Tidus was behind her, Rikku crouched behind his left shoulder, and Wakka came struggling at the last moment. "You can see why we."

Mammoth, it fired again. Something crashed in the distance.

"It's too big. We'll have to wait for the Celsius to arrive," Rikku said.

"It'll be able to fire at the village once it clears the tree line. It will have a clear line of fire," Paine responded.

A shell fired, landing behind them,

"So you want to fight it?" Tidus asked.

"We won't have to win." Paine turned to Wakka who just caught his breath. "We just have to keep it busy for a few minutes. I'm going. To protect my family."

Tidus looked to Wakka, then back to Paine. He grasped both hands on his sword. "You with this?"

Paine nodded, doing the same to her sword for the impending charge.

"Oh crap," Rikku swore. "This is gonna be messy."

Paine watched the mechanism. Mammoth, six legs continuously moving toward the village, six legs carrying a battery towards her friends, and six legs threatening the life of her world. Six, six, six. And finally the howitzer fired.

Paine was the first out, her feet slipping slightly on the sand. Her vision bouncing. The sound of gunfire toward her side, and a missile's exhaust igniting into a fiery trail. She reached its leg, one of them, attacking using the most powerful blade technique she knew to be effective. She made contact and she felt some of the mechanical components give way. Sparks flew from her impact site, and the machina groaned as if in pain.

Sounds of struggle came from above and Tidus was wrestling with the large howitzer on its back. It turned jerked, as captured fiend trying to fling the human leech off when the barrel suddenly pointed Paine's direction. "Great!" She dodged and dust from the shell impact trailed her. Her sword fell out her hand. She grabbed it. Turned to find the barrel again pointed her direction, without Tidus trying to control its vector. Doom, except that she vaguely heard Wakka shout and a firey blitz ball knock the cannon off her. It fired into foliage.

"I've got you covered Paine," Wakka said, and Paine waved her thanks.

Rikku launched an attack on its front, what appeared to be a cockpit. A good idea. "I could use some help with this!" Tidus swung in only moments after she said it. Paine rushed in, Wakka close behind. "It won't budge!"

The machina began to fire more rapidly. Paine's ears rang the bells of missile whistles and canon reports.

Paine wrapped her fingers around the lower edge trying to force it open. It didn't budge. "Together! On three!"

One, two, three.

The seal suddenly gave way, the group almost falling down in the release. The cockpit opened, revealing the bones of the former pilots. Paine saw them, but knew must discount them because there was no time.

"Ok." Rikku pulled out a grenade from her bag of tricks, pulling the safety and arming the timer. "Let's run."

It took only moments to reach the tree line with the motivation of canon behind them. Only moments to see the grenade explode amid the weapons fire, the glass from the cockpit to fly in the air, and the bones of the former pilots to hit the ground. The mammoth waned, a siren warning of a fire in the cockpit its final word. It took two steps forward a final attempt to complete its mission before it died. The siren went silent and the fire ceased.

All was quiet.

"Yes. Kick ass! We did it!" Tidus exclaimed and Wakka and Rikku joined him in the elation. They had taken it down, no injuries and no aid from the Celsius.

Paine walked towards the dead mammoth, driven by a sudden curiosity. Only the quiet after the battle did she realize the peculiarities of the machina. Why had it attacked on its own? What were the strange glyphs she now noticed on the side of the hull? They looked similar. Were they the same as the other? The pilots who were they? She wanted answers. She walked toward it, her friends celebrating behind. A mammoth lay there, like a dead animal, far from its home. She was only feet from the wreck when suddenly sounds began again.

Paine brought her sword up, expecting an attack on her, but she was mistaken. A hatch opened on the mammoth's back revealing six missiles, larger, heavier payload than those they had fought through. To at a time they fired flying thousands of feet into the air, almost outside of her sight. Six contrails into the sky. Six, six, six.

Paine swore. Why didn't she expect this?

"What can I do?" What could she do? They were too high for a sword to attack.

"What can I do?" ire in her voice. They were turning in the air. Changing vector to their targets.

"What can I do?" Too high for her act. She knew their targets. She knew the purpose of the other spider machina, to give target positions, the Village of Besaid. But they were too high for her to act.

"No."

Her heat beat, this time like a train attempting to burst from her chest. Her heart beat, and her arms burned, a faint glimmer of light surrounding her, getting stronger. Her heat beat, and her garment grid activated and metallic wings materialized around her body. "No." Two blades emerged and floated in the air, spinning till they became razor-like birds of lethal pursuit. The two blades launched themselves into the air, flying faster than the missiles, faster than anything she had ever seen before. The circled each other like a pair of eagles and then flew off, slicing through the missiles like paper. And in moments the missiles were no more. The blades returned slowing to a stop, then in a glimmer of light, the wings disappeared, the two blades with them.

Her hear beat, it slowed and she felt drained of everything.

"Paine!" her friends called after her but she couldn't respond. "Paine." It hurt everything hurt, her soul was in pain. "Paine." She was drifting away through memory and time.

A flash and the lighting shot over the water.

She thought to herself, "It happened again. What is this sphere?" She realized she was lying flat, and that people were standing over her. A large red mass filled her vision. "Maybe I'm dying."

"You're not dying. Not yet."

He was standing next to her. If only she knew who he was.

-Stonehenge.


	9. Chapter 9

A Fallen Beast

Red is the color of passion, and passion was filling her sight then.

"You're not dying." He said. The voice was deep, human but also not.

Who was he?

She wanted to turn to see him. But she couldn't move. Paine, her limbs were but laying her side. And he was standing next to her.

"Who are you?" She didn't know if she spoke it or just thought it.

"What is happening to me? Why is this happening to me?" She pleaded.

The shadow in her eye drifted away. "You must find him, Fury."

There was an explosion far off in the distance, like a new star being born in the depth of space. And there was something there.

"Paine."

She didn't want him to leave. She realized she was outside herself then, seeing but not seeing, speaking without any sound. "I'm going crazy," she said to herself.

"No. You're not. You're not crazy Paine." It was Tides' voice suddenly ringing in her ears, and she faintly was aware of the feeling of dry sand on her back and the sun in her eyes. "Come on, come on."

Her sight returned and she was lying on her back while three shadows hung over her. The roar of the Celsius' engines filled her ears as the ship landed near them, and the endless chatter of her friends' concern. She sat up, and the intense pain she had felt made itself known again. He limbs and abdomens were like jelly, almost as though she had just swum ten miles.

"Whoa!" It was Wakka expressing concern. "Maybe you shouldn't move so much ya?"

Rikku knelt down next to her. "Take it easy. That was some crazy…thing you just did."

"What?" Paine asked? Then she remembered, the two blades that had appeared around her, and flew up into the air slicing the missiles to pieces. It seemed like it had been days before. But she knew it had been just moments. She fell back supporting herself on her forearms. Why was she so exhausted?

The Celsius' door opened, and Shinra came bonding out of it toward her, almost as though he cared for Paine's health, before running right past her toward the smoking remains of the Machina. Paine laughed. It was exactly what she would have expected from him, more concern for the technology than the people involved.

Rikku stood up, "Hey you could at least show some sympathy." Shinra didn't respond.

"What were you expecting?" Buddy said as he walked down the ramp. "Holy Spira. That is some piece of machina."

"I know." Tidus said. Smoke continued to emanate from the cockpit, and even in destruction the Mammoth looked menacing.

Paine looked back, unable to believe it was her that did it. The machina had more weapons than a thousand Crusaders. More weapons than anything the Al-Bed ever built, and she had taken it down with a sword.

"Yeah. We were lucky." Wakka said.

"No kidding." Buddy agreed. "I've never seen anything like it."

It laid there, the massive hulk of a fallen titan, but Paine felt something more, something deeper, a connection, when she looked at. She knew it was the sphere, that sphere that was entrenched in her garment grid, that sphere that gave her so much strength yet almost killed her. And then there were the dreams. She had to find out more, or else she was going to go crazy. She couldn't just lye there and let things happen. Against the anguishing protest of her muscles she stood up, Rikku assisting her.

"Hey! Take it easy," Tidus said. "We don't want you to pass out again."

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"I'd say!" Wakka said. That was some display back there ya. Never seen anybody do something like that."

"It's that sphere right?" Buddy asked and Paine nodded.

"I'll have to get me one of those," Tidus said crassly.

"Hey!" Rikku exclaimed.

"What?"

"You're being a bit insensitive about the situation here!"

"Are you going to be okay Paine?" Buddy inquired.

"I told you I'm fine. I just need to rest." She almost didn't finish her sentence, and collapsed with Rikku struggling to support her. She felt like there was nothing left, as though ever sap of strength and left her muscles. "Not now," she thought, thinking only of the irony, and the embarrassment. She felt Rikku depart and more powerful arms pick her up and walk inside the Celsius. Her heart beat, she could hear it, like a slow drum in the distance, one, two, three. And then darkness was over her as the shadow of the ship replaced the sun. "How many times will this happen to me?"

Sounds of metal, and grinding wheels filled her ears. "You may never be rid of it, because it was not meant for you."

That voice! It wasn't the same. It's wasn't the same as the one she had heard before. It was far away, so far away, as if the speaker was on the Farplane. "You must get rid of it, or it will destroy you, as it has so many."

"Who are you?" She thought. She felt a disdain for the speaker, something deep and primeval. The voice was pleasant, but the intent behind it, dubious. He was different.

A soft laughter came over the machine sounds. "Watch for my sign."

Paine felt the bed sheets beneath her then, ad couldn't bear to keep her eyes open any longer.


	10. Chapter 10

Decisions

Paine felt her eyes open to a dark room and a pounding headache.

"Ah…" she groaned. She had hangovers before, but what she was feeling then gave new meaning to the term "head-splitting." It felt like she had been using her forehead as a hammer, though she suspected that wouldn't have been as bad. She groaned again. Her life just wasn't giving her any breaks was it.

A few moments passed and gradually the pain waned to a tolerable level, enough to at least let her relax. She looked around the room. Despite the darkness it was clear she was in the Celsius. Where else would she be? She vaguely remembered someone carrying her aboard and laying her down, not who. But whoever it was, was also kind enough to remove some her garments so she could sleep more comfortably, and she groaned at the thought that it might have been Rikku. She felt a bit glad she was unconscious at the time.

She groped around to find a small clock that was usually kept by the bed, somewhat curious to find out how long she had out, only to find nothing. Someone moved it. She groaned again.

"I hate my life." She said half seriously to herself. Not that she was suicidal, but if things continued as they were she was definitely going to ditch the garment grid. It would be a loss. She fought just as well without it before, long before in fact. But she would miss the power it gave her. Her typical magics were much more potent using the grid. But she would have another…whatever in her mind. No matter how powerful it was.

"Power…"

The images of the twin blades that intercepted those missiles came to mind, and the energy that destroyed that large mecha. This thing, this source was definitely one of a kind, something never seen before in Spira, and maybe never seen again?

Could she learn to use it?

Paine's heart skipped a beat at the thought. She always wanted to be strong. To have power, not for the sake of it in itself but to project herself and friends from fiends, from Sin, and from Shuyin…she wouldn't mind having that.

But then the thought of Shuyin came to mind, a ghost who in his grief and anger became so engrossed in the power of a machine that he tried to destroy the world. Would she become like him…or…?

This was too much to think about that late of night.

She laid her head black, pulling the comforter on top of her close to keep warm, and closed her eyes.

These things were, after all, better left in the light of day.

Paine awoke the next day late, very late. She groped again for the clock didn't find. "

"Oh right." Someone had moved it.

From the brightness of the Sun she could tell it was at least noon. She wasn't the only one sleeping in though. Rikku also was still snoozing in her bed on other side of the balcony of the cabin on which the beds were situated.

"Ha." The missing clock was also there.

When she was a little bit younger she had made the habit of sleeping till noon, but that habit ended a long time before she joined the Gullwings, for the most part at least. She hated wasting the morning, especially it was the only time of day she could a little bit of peace to herself on the crowded Celsius. But this time she had good reasons to be sleeping in, other company's notwithstanding.

Paine decided to just let the girl sleep. Besides, she needed to talk to Shinra; she needed to know more about this sphere.

The ship seemed surprisingly empty. The Barkeep wasn't on duty, and Paine never knew what else he did on the ship when he wasn't tending to the food and drinks. There was no sign of Yuna or her new significant other, though that didn't surprise her. She arrived on the bridge to find it just as quiet as the cabin. Brother wasn't around to hound her about anything, nor was Shinra busy at work in his station.

Paine allowed a sigh. She wasn't in the mood to chasing after people, but what could she do?

"Good morning," the pleasant voice of Buddy came from behind her.

She turned around and he walked passed her down to his usual navigating station

"Morning," she responded.

"You were out for awhile. Rikku was panicking. She practically stayed up all night checking on you."

"Yeah…well I kind of have an excuse."

"No kidding."

"Where is Shinra?"

"Where do you think? He spent the entire night combing over that machina you guys blew up yesterday. 'Fascinating' he says."

Paine allowed herself a small laugh. It was good to have some things you could rely upon. "Thanks."

"So how you feeling?"

"I'm fine." She said tersely.

Buddy just shrugged his shoulders. "Okay…"

A tinge of regret came over her. She didn't mean to be so austere and aloof. She just never liked to talk about those things casually.

Paine turned to leave the bridge, when right as she did she was immediately seized by some blond creature.

"Paine!" Rikku exclaimed.

"Rikku let…"

"Painie! I was so worried. I mean you were fine then you just passed out and didn't wake up for hours and hours! I thought you might die…"

"I didn't die Rikku," she said finally a able to rescue herself from the grip of the smaller girl. "I was just tired."

"Well yeah. I would be too after blowing up a big-metal-spider-machina. You should have seen yourself. All this red light goes about you and then things just come out of nowhere. And boom! Dr. P saves the day! It was so cool! But pretty scary at the same time."

"Uh…Yeah," Paine suddenly remembered why she didn't to talk to Shinra.

"No joke Paine," Buddy chimed in. "With that thing, you could go toe-to-toe with an aeon if you wanted."

"I doubt that's gonna happen anytime soon."

"Still…"

"Yeah you're like a super-hero now!" Rikku commented. "A super-Gullwing! Other sphere hunters beware!" Rikku made some odd bird flapping jestures.

"S…stop that. I need to talk to Shinra." Paine said trying to push passed Rikku.

"Well you can right now. They all just got back to the ship," Buddy said.

"Ahhh." What could Paine do? She had little choice but to surrender.

The door opened and in bounded Shinra hauling some odd black device, followed closely by Tidus and Yuna.

"Hey!" Tidus said, "Look who's back from the dead."

"I didn't die."

"Well I'm glad you're okay. Rikku was really worried about you," Yuna spoke.

"Yeah I noticed." All the attention was beginning to get on her nerves. But she just had to roll with it. "Shinra."

"Wait a minute," the young Al-bed replied. His attention was transfixed on the black…thing he had brought in.

"I need to ask you to…"

"Just a second."

Paine bit her lip. She had been waiting to ask him a question and now he was being sheepish.

Paine turned back to Yuna. "What is that thing?'

"Shinra took it out of that machina. He said it was some sort of data recorder," Yuna responded.

"Like a sphere?"

"Not really," Shinra chimed in. "It doesn't store the same sort of information."

"What does it store then?"

"Hold on…"

"Ah," Paine groaned. He never was very cooperative.

"Paine you should go a good look at that machina," Tidus remarked.

"I got a good at it yesterday," Paine replied, thinking of the corpses that were inside the thing.

"No I'm serious. This is the toughest machine I've ever seen. I mean you put a grenade in the front of that thing but it still barely made a dent. We even got some of the stuff inside to work again. It's also really old, pre-Sin pre-Zanarkand, pre-everything."

Yuna spoke up. "We think its related to the spheres you found."

"Related?"

"Most definitely," Shinra shot up and said before going back to his work.

Yuna continued, "We going to watch the rest of that sphere. Shinra says he thinks he's decoded it."

"You should watch it with us," Tidus suggested.

Paine allowed another sigh. There was some curiosity lingering in her mind about those spheres and the mammoth machina from the other day, and Shinra didn't seem like he was going to be pulled away from his new toy anytime soon. So might as well…

They pulled out the strange sphere and pick up where they left off.

More mystery awaits…

-Stonehenge


	11. Chapter 11

Strange Meetings

For a moment the screen before Paine was a mess of static and noise, then it suddenly cleared, following the same two soldiers from the last time they had watched. It had been several days but Paine could still clearly see the enormous ship as they approached aboard some sort of airship. Buy now they were on the ground, and they weren't alone. Scores of people all wearing the same or similar style uniforms were muddling around them in a massive crowd. Far off Paine could see the top of that great ship.

"Yo Blaze," the soldier holder the sphere recorded began, "I don't think we're going to get any closer to it. Not till the ceremony is over at least."

The recorder jerked around a bit till finally Paine could see the red eyed soldier from before. The Captain O'Neil…

"Yeah…I just wanted to see if Macgregor was breaking the champagne. There are too many uniforms up there," he said.

"Well they always tape these things anyway for the National Archives."

"What the hell does 'tape' mean?" Rikku asked aloud.

"He means to record it," Paine answered.

"How do you know?"

"Shh…" the group chanted as the conversation resumed.

"Anyway I vote we hit the commissary before this crowd does. We're going aboard this thing tomorrow…oh crap!"

Some scuffling noises were heard and the view dropped to the ground and the picture went black before returning a moment later.

"…Alright."

"You haven't had that thing a day and you're already breaking it," the red eyed soldier commented.

"It's not broken! At least, I don't think it is…and whatever I have a warranty on it. Anyway who was it that bumped me, and why didn't you say anything?" the soldier holding the recorder asked as if he was hurt.

"It was Colonel Burton," the red eyed soldier responded.

A long pain-ridden groan came from behind the screen. For some reason it struck Paine as sort of funny.

"That jarhead has always hated me, I swear man. I've been trying to avoid him for hr past six years."

"Why?" the red eyed soldier asked.

"Ahh…you know I was a marine before I became an SC right? Well cycle back six years ago I was a pilot for 6th division under guess-who's command, and one night I somehow got the idea to take a new YF-121 out for a spin."

The red eyed soldier's eyes went slightly wide in semi-amazement. "What?"

"Hey, I was young and stupid. Give me a break. Anyway I ended up crashing into one of the training targets for air-to-ground fighting. No one was hurt. My squad commander ended up cutting me a break. He called it a training accident. But you know old blood-n'-guts Burton he doesn't believe in chance and…there it is." The recorder moved up and down slightly as the holder shrugged.

"Wow," the red eyed captain said. "That really sucks for you."

"Yeah, you're telling me."

"No, I mean it. You do know he's coming aboard the Freedom with us too?"

"What?"

"Yeah."

"What!"

"Yes. He's taking command of the marines for out whole battle group."

There was a long strange silence from behind the recorder, and Paine couldn't help but smile for some reason. She put her hand over he mouth to stifle any giggles that might escape. Why was she finding this so amusing?

"Holy…" He was about to say something else when another voice off the screen spoke.

"Yes. Well a lot of us feel the same way about Colonel Burton."

The recorder jerked around as both of the soldiers came to attention.

"General," the red eyed soldier said.

"At ease. None of us are on duty now. Hello Riley it's been awhile."

"Ah yes it has sir, two years."

The image shifted then, and got a view of this new player in the act. He was a much older soldier than the other two, short and with graying hair. A long scare was visible on the side of his face, running from the bottom of his eye to his neck. Paine couldn't help but wince at the sight of it. She couldn't but picture in her mind the wound that scare resulted from.

"The SC must have treated you well for you to be paired with Blaze here," the General continued speaking with the soldier holding the recorder.

"Yes it has sir. It's an honor to work with Captain O'Neil."

"I'm sure it is. Captain…" the General began but stopped as if he was uncertain about something. Paine felt some concern for him. What was he hiding?"

"…Sir?"

"Well it's like this…" He stopped again, and Paine saw his eyes focus on someone behind the recorder. The image spun around again revealing another older man, much taller than the General, leanly built with a commanding face. Both the Captain and the other soldier again shot into attention.

"At ease," he said, then returned his attention to the General who smiled and nodded at the newcomer awkwardly.

"Hello Jack," the General greeted.

"Jacob…" his eyes looked to Captain O'Neil for a second. "You're not trying to steal two of my subordinates are you?"

"Oh no! Of course not. I was just making conversation. Well I'll see you around Jack. Gentlemen!" He made a small farewell gesture with his right hand and then walked away.

For a moment the scene was silent, and Paine even felt her cheeks grow warm just watching the awkwardness of the situation.

"What was that about?" Tidus asked.

"Who knows? This whole thing is pretty weird," Rikku commented.

"Shh…"

"Well…Blaze, glad to see you're still alive," the newcomer said to the red eyed soldier.

"Yes sir, glad to be alive. Um, General Carter this is my new partner, Commander Alvin Riley." He said motioning toward the sphere recorder.

The General nodded toward the screen. "Commander," he said stretching out his hand.

"Sir, I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it is to finally meet you."

"Oh…well as Blaze can tell you the pleasure wears off pretty quickly."

"Ha, yes sir."

"General…shouldn't you be up there?" the red eyed Captain said, pointing toward the large ship.

"Yes but…they have enough command officers already. Besides…these things are really boring," ht responded.

"General Carter, this is going to be your ship?" the soldier behind the recorder asked.

"So? Captain Hamilton is going to be commanding the Freedom. I'm just in charge of the battle group and you two."

"…Yes sir."

"Sir…" The red eyed soldier began.

"Yes Captain."

"General are all of… _us_ going to be aboard the Freedom."

General Carter's eyes went to the ground for a moment before he answered. "More or less."

"Sir…what's going…" The Captain began to say.

"I can't tell you anything about any operation in motion. You know that Blaze. I'm sorry it seems like we're pulling a fast one over you guys, but this is how it is. So…just enjoy the day off and report for duty tomorrow. Okay?"

"Yes sir," they both responded.

"Well then. See you tomorrow," the General said and disappeared into the crowd.

"Okay…" the Commander said after a moment. "Well that was a bit strange."

"I don't like this."

"Neither do I Blaze, but what else are we going to do? Anyway let's…" He cut himself off and the view suddenly began to spin around wildly.

"Why'd he stop talking?" Yuna asked.

"I don't know," Tidus responded.

"Wait," Paine said. "Listen…"

They did, and barely audible from the recording they hear the wailing sound of a siren in the distance. Some sort of alarm?

The crowd in the recording suddenly began to run in all directions, not in a panic Paine could tell, but in an organized way.

"Blaze!" the Commander said focusing back on the red eyed soldier, who stood motionless starring down at the palm of his right hand. For a moment Paine couldn't understand what in Spira he was doing. Then saw it, a faint red aura surrounding his hand. He heart began to beat faster at the sight of it. She felt like she was there, like most peculiar déjà vu. What was that?

"Oh great…" the Commander said.

The red eyed soldier looked up then and said quietly, "They're coming."

The screen went black, and Paine was able to calm down slightly.

"Hey! What happened?" Rick exclaimed.

"That was the end of that video entry. Give me a minute to bring up the other one," Shinar responded.

"Huh! Why does this take so long?" Rikku said in defeat.

"Well this sucks," Tidus said. "Right as it was getting interesting the thing shuts off again."

"Yeah…and we didn't really learn anything about the machina," Buddy said from his front station.

"Not true," Yuna protested. "We know that they're soldiers and that they're fighting a war…"

"Yeah but who are they fighting? We've never even heard the name of the other city or theirs?" Buddy continued.

"Maybe they're not fighting another city," Paine said.

"Well then what's the war about? Fiends?" Buddy responded.

"Yeah why not?" Rikku chimed in. "It's like two years ago. And these guys are just…really old Crusaders."

"With machina like that one we fought, those have to be some pretty hefty fiends and was before Sin," Buddy said.

"How old is this sphere Shinra?" Yuna asked.

"It's hard to tell. But I do think I can figure out the age of that machine with this thing." He patted the back machine he brought in.

"You know what it is yet?" Paine asked.

"It's an automated control device."

"An automatic control er what?" Rikku asked?

"It's a sort of machina that controls other machina without the need of person."

"Well why didn't you say that," Rikku responded. "We've used those plenty of times."

"I never seen one this sophisticated before. I pretty sure it can input from long distance," Shinra elaborated.

"And that means," Tidus asked.

"It can be control from long distance," Paine said. "So that's the reason the thing suddenly came to life."

"I think so."

"Great. Mystery solved," Paine remarked. "Shinra I need to ask you something."

"If it's about the dress sphere I can't tell you much," he replied.

"I just need to know a little more about how to control it," Paine retorted.

"Well I know it becomes active when the garment grid goes to full capacity."

"Okay. How do I do that?"

"I'm just kid."

Paine ran her fingers through her hair. This wasn't getting her anywhere.

"You probably just have to use magic till your energy runs out," Tidus offered. That's what I would think."

It made sense. Each time she did it she was near exhaustion, but there was something else though. Some key that it work.

"Well there's only thing to do then," Rikku began. "Let's go fight some fiends."

"Yeah let's do it!" Yuna said in uncharacteristically gun-ho fashion, and the entire bridge erupted in similar approval of the plan.

Paine laughed at the familiarity of the moment, and surrendered to the excitement. Why not? What other lead did she have on the special dress sphere she possessed? And Besides, it should be fun.

And so they left the bridge of the Celsius to find a dragon ready for slaying

More action awaits…

-Stonehenge


End file.
